As far back as
the Beach Boys, the term
Endless Summer evoked ceaseless good times, and while
Billy Currington doesn't sound a thing like the boys from Hawthorne, California, he borrows that sensibility for 2015's
Summer Forever. Pivoting off the loping come-on of his 2013 hit "Hey Girl,"
Currington decides to keep things light and laid-back, flirting with a bit of hip-hop on the title track and the gamely goofy "Soundtrack," but such slight departures only serve to highlight how he's generally decided to keep things genial and familiar throughout
Summer Forever. Nothing here is pushed too hard, not the joke on "Drinkin' Town with a Football Problem" nor the romance on "Do I Make You Wanna," and that nonchalance is the key to
Currington's appeal: he cares but he's casual, letting his low-key charisma sell the song but never drawing attention to himself. Much of
Summer Forever marries this personality to solid songs -- sometimes they get a little silly, as on the mall-country anthem "Don't It," but even those tunes benefit from the omnipresent chill -- and that means this is as relaxing as a warm breeze but also sturdy, delivering good times as assuredly on the seventh play as it does on the first. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine